Dominick Cruz set for return at UFC 178 vs. Takeya Mizugaki

We’ll try this one more time. It will be just shy of three years to the day, but Dominick Cruz once again has a date mapped out for his return.

Cruz (19-1 MMA, 2-0 UFC) is set to return in September against Takeya Mizugaki (20-7-2 MMA, 7-2 UFC) at UFC 178 in Las Vegas. UFC officials announced the news Tuesday night following an initial report from ESPN.com‘s Brett Okamoto.

UFC 178 takes place Sept. 27 in Las Vegas, thigh a precise venue has not yet been announced. The pay-per-view main card will be headlined by a light heavyweight title rematch between champion Jon Jones and challenger Alexander Gustafsson.

Cruz last fought on Oct. 1, 2011, when he defended his bantamweight title against Demetrious Johnson at UFC on VERSUS 6 in Washington, D.C. Since that time, Johnson has dropped a weight class and won the flyweight title – and defended it four times, to give some type of understanding to just how long Cruz has been sidelined.

The now-former champ, who was stripped of his belt earlier this year after news of his latest injury setback, suffered the first of his injuries in May 2012, when he blew out his knee while coaching Season 15 of “The Ultimate Fighter” opposite rival Urijah Faber. That postponed their UFC 148 title fight.

While rehabbing, Cruz had to undergo a second knee surgery in December 2012 when his body didn’t take to the first surgery properly. After a lengthy rehab through all of 2013, Cruz was set for a title unification bout against then-interim champ Renan Barao at UFC 169. But once again, an injury took him out, this time a torn groin.

But now the California-based fighter hopes this time is the charm.

Mizugaki is riding a five-fight winning streak in the bantamweight division, all decision wins. At UFC 173 in May, he topped Francisco Rivera. His other wins in the stretch include solid resume builders over Erik Perez and Bryan Caraway. But a win over Cruz would be his biggest accomplishment yet in the UFC.